Pixar Removes Director Bob Peterson From The Good Dinosaur

Following a rumor that originated earlier this week at Blue Sky Disney, The LA Times has now confirmed that Up co-helmer Bob Peterson has been removed as director of the upcoming The Good Dinosaur. A replacement has yet to be named, but DisneyPixar says that the project will still meet its May 30, 2014 release date.

“All directors get really deep in their films,” says Pixar Animation Studios president Ed Catmull. “Sometimes you just need a different perspective to get the idea out. Sometimes directors… are so deeply embedded in their ideas it actually takes someone else to finish it up. I would go so far as to argue that a lot of live-action films would be better off with that same process.”

The Good Dinosaur is set to feature the voice talents of Lucas Neff, John Lithgow, Frances McDormand, Bill Hader and Neil Patrick Harris. The storyline asks, “What would have happened if the cataclysmic asteroid that forever changed life on Earth actually missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct?”

Peterson, who is also well-known for his Pixar voicework, starring as both Dug and Alpha in Up and as Roz in Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University, will still be working at the studio and is said to have another directing project already in the works.